Central Synagogue
- Architect
- Henry Fernbach
- Year
- 1872
- Style
- Moorish / Mudéjar
- City
- Manhattan, NY
Central Synagogue, at 652 Lexington Avenue at 55th Street, was built from 1870 to 1872 for the congregation Ahawath Chesed in the Moorish Revival style designed by Henry Fernbach. The current congregation, Central, formed in 1898 through the merger of Ahawath Chesed with Shaar Hashomayim, two congregations founded in the 1830s and 1840s by German and Bohemian Jewish immigrants who had originally settled on the Lower East Side before moving north. Central is a National Historic Landmark.
the building
Fifth building for the congregation. The Lexington Avenue synagogue was the fifth building constructed for Ahawath Chesed as its membership moved progressively northward through Manhattan over the 19th century.
the style
Moorish Revival was a distinctive choice for a New York synagogue of the 1870s, and Fernbach's design became one of the style's defining local examples, giving the congregation an architectural identity separate from the Gothic and Classical vocabularies used by Christian churches nearby.
More on Moorish / Mudéjarthe architect
Henry Fernbach designed Central Synagogue, completed in 1872.
significance
Central Synagogue is a National Historic Landmark, a New York City Individual Landmark (LP-00276), and is listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places, designated 6/7/1966.
nearby
- Citigroup Center
- Citicorp Center (now 601 Lexington Avenue) including Saint Peter's Church
- Hoffman Auto Showroom
- Seagram Building
- Lever House
- Ritz Tower